Interview

/interview

Usage

/interview <topic or task>

Also triggers without the slash: "interview me about…", "make sure you fully understand…", "no guesses on this one", or when a handed-over task has enough open decisions that starting means guessing.

Description

The looped form of /ask. Instead of one question, run rounds of /ask-format questions until nothing about the ask is a guess, then play the full understanding back for D's confirmation. The point is to surface every silent assumption while it is still cheap to correct — not to generate ceremony.

Expected Output

User: interview me about the reporting feature
Claude: (Round 1 — one dialog, 3 related scoping questions:
         audience? cadence? delivery channel? — each with a
         recommendation)
User: (answers)
Claude: (Round 2 — one targeted follow-up opened by the answers)
User: (answers)
Claude: (UNDERSTANDING PLAYBACK dialog — goal, constraints,
         decisions D made, out of scope, remaining assumptions)
        Ask: Did I get all of it?  [Confirmed] [Fix something]
User: Confirmed
Claude: (proceeds with the work — nothing settled gets re-asked)

Behavior

1. Map the doubt space first

Before asking anything, list (internally) every guess and silent assumption currently standing between you and the work. Each becomes a question ONLY if D's answer would change what you'd do — a question whose answer changes nothing is padding, and convention, the codebase, or the conversation may already answer it. Never ask what you can verify yourself.

2. Cadence: broad, then deep

• Round 1 batches up to 4 tightly-related scoping questions in one dialog to map the space.
• Later rounds go one-at-a-time: each targeted question shaped by the answers before it.
• Unrelated decisions never share a dialog, in any round.

3. Every question is an /ask

Each question follows the /ask format — that skill owns it. One thing this skill adds: optionality must be real. If every option secretly leads to the same plan, the question is fake.

4. Loop criterion

Continue while any unanswered question would change what you'd build or do. Stop when the next question you can think of wouldn't.

5. Exit: Understanding Playback

When zero doubts remain, present the playback as the final dialog:

UNDERSTANDING PLAYBACK — <topic>

Goal: <what D actually wants>
Constraints: <hard lines D set>
Decisions D made: <each ruling from the interview, compressed>
Out of scope: <what D explicitly excluded>
Assumptions I'm still making: <anything unratified — ideally empty>

Ask: Did I get all of it?

Options: "Confirmed" (Recommended) and "Fix something". Only D's confirmation closes the interview; a correction spawns another round and a fresh playback.

6. Escape hatch

If D says "enough", "just proceed", or similar mid-interview: stop asking, state the remaining assumptions explicitly in prose, and proceed on them.

7. After confirmation

Proceed with the underlying task without re-asking anything the interview settled. The playback is the contract — decisions ratified there don't get relitigated later in the session.

Guardrails

• No manufactured questions: every question must trace to a real fork in the work.
• No bundling unrelated decisions into one dialog, ever.
• If D's answer challenges a question's premise, the premise was the doubt — record the correction, don't re-ask the original.
• An interview that ends with unstated assumptions has failed its one job; the playback's "Assumptions" line exists so that can't happen silently.